Canada Explosion

Transcript

BOB HIRSHON (host):
A big bang in the Great White North. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Mineral deposits in Indiana and Ohio may have come from a prehistoric comet explosion over Canada. Such an explosion was proposed by geophysicist Allen West to explain evidence of massive fires, followed by a quick climate change that killed off woolly mammoths and other mega-mammals. Now, University of Cincinnati anthropologist Ken Tankersley and his colleagues have traced fragments of a volcanic rock called kimberlite, which isn’t native to the area, to West’s proposed impact site in Canada.

KEN TANKERSLEY (University of Cincinnati):
It answered for me a major geological question: How did these kimberlite deposits reach southern Indiana and southern Ohio?

HIRSHON:
Tankersley says he thought that glaciers had transported them, until he discovered evidence that supports the more violent origin. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.